The main point: Since February, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has terminated hundreds of grants, mainly to universities, including dozens devoted to HIV research and others related to chronic diseases.

• Many of the grants appeared to mention gender, sexuality, or diversity. More than 50 devoted to HIV research were cancelled.

Why it’s important: Many of the grants cut were related to substance use and mental health, either in connection to HIV or substance use among gender/sexual minorities.

The details: Just a few of the many examples include grants related to:

• Preventing drug misuse among sexual minority youth
• Social media anti-vaping messages to reduce e-cigarette use among sexual and gender minority teens
• The role of structural stigma in alcohol-related inequities among sexual and gender minority young adults
• Development of a school-based prevention intervention to promote adolescent mental health equity
• Increasing resistance to tobacco marketing among young adult sexual minority women
• Risk factors for cannabis use among women
• Structural inequities as drivers of HIV and substance use
• Stigma and its influence on Black and Latino bisexual men at risk for substance misuse and HIV
• Impacts of racial inequality on substance use and HIV outcomes
• Mentoring clinical investigators in patient-oriented research on substance use and HIV